Why it works: Currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓
Four Fruit Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Combine all the fruit in a pot with the sugar.
Place the pot over high heat and boil steadily.
Once the sugar is melted and the fruit is dissolved, remove the pot from the heat when the preserve starts to rise to the surface.
Strain and pot
Strain the mixture through a sieve.
Pour the strained mixture into glasses.
Cover the glasses when cool.
Alternatively, pour the mixture into 1½ pint cans and seal while hot.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sets with the fruit pectin and acid to form the jelly and preserves the fruit.
- Cherries
- Provide body and sweet-tart fruit flavour to the jelly.
- Currants
- Contribute natural pectin and tartness to help the jelly set.
- Strawberries
- Add fruit flavour and moisture that dissolves into the jelly base.
- Raspberries
- Add aroma and bright flavour to the blended fruit mixture.
The step that matters
Removing the pot from the heat. Boiling too long over high heat can overcook the sugar and fruit, making the jelly darken and lose fresh flavour, while removing it too early may leave it too loose to set.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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